Friday, November 21, 2014

Modern Democracy : The net essence of its evils

Modern Democracy : The net essence of its evils

There was an article in the 'Indian Express' news paper on November 17th,2014, wherein the author had a sentence that explained the essence of the evil that modern democracies are infected with; He was referring to the issue of abandoning ‘death penalty’ altogether from the judicial system of nations.

" The Indian parliament is not sensitive to such matters" !

Not only Indian parliament, but every modern political state treats single individual merely as animpersonal component in the greater whole, the society, or the country.. Let him live or die, the State is not sensitive, or centrally concerned about such issues. This is a grave philosophical, or to be more right, an ontological malady of modern political and social theory.

Do modern states represent whatever is noble and pious about the humankind ? Do they solely and directly exist to achieve the grooming of better communities, and an ideal larger world ?

Even though in paper it appears so, in reality, thanks to their predominant POLITICAL nature, they are entirely distinct entities, with their professional goal and work-dynamics remaining far remote from everything pious and noble ! What these modern political entities keep and practice is a kind of 'state-craft', an old art and science of managing mass human communities within the frame-work of the old 'ruler and the ruled' paradigm. The myths and norms around the older authoritarian third-party regimes ( in the sense that rulers were altogether different a class, or species from that of the people !) around the 'ruler and the ruled' are still active and alive at this realm.

Noam Chomsky was candid about the present regimes' prejudices about people's class: " If you read the sayings of the founding fathers,( of America) you will discover that, that was essentially their view as well. They also regarded the public as a dangerous threat. The way the country ought to be organized, as John Jay put it, the president of the constitutional convention and the first supreme court- chief justice of the supreme court, his- one of his favorite maxims, according to his biographer, was that those who run- those who own the country ought to govern it. And if they can't govern it by force, they've got to govern it in another way, and that ultimately requires deception, propaganda, indoctrination, the manufacture of consent" ( Chomsky, in a speech delivered atUniversity of Wisconsin - Madison, March 15, 1989)He says, while the communist regimes have the 'club' ( totalitarian power)in their hands to discipline the 'internal enemies'- the people, what suits democracy is the above said 'deception by propaganda, indoctrination and manufactured consent'. In principle, both methods are equal for the intended purpose. Modern democratic regimes are modeled exactly the same way that any old third-party( authoritarian) regimes were modeled,with regard to their attitude towards people !

Democracy as a peoples own political system had never attempted, nor thought-out, or produced any different set of norms, values and myths that amply suited a real regime of people . The only paradigm shift that was achieved by the government of people was about the ones who should occupy the seats of power; instead of Kings, Feudal-Lords, or any hierarchical ruling class, democracy insisted on seating peoples representatives there on these seats !

It was a great tragedy for human-kind as this un-thought tenet has taken away the opportunity for a grass-root change, as to what should be the real status and role of citizens class under the peoples own system !!! So, peoples’ class still remain as the old class of ‘subjects' under modern democratic regimes, as passive victims, targets or even predators’ prey under all the follies and tyranny of the modern 'ruling' class ! A new class of RULERS in the form of professional political leaders and their well organized groups are there well set and established, in every modern nation where democracy reigns.

The question of hanging or not hanging criminals is one in a thousand of similar crucial questions that modern democratic states fail to take-up in the new light of a true regime of people !

“an age can be called modern and progressive only when it starts sending her prisoners to mental asylums than jails". Forget about the past third-party regimes; a peoples own governmental system should have taken-up with serious concern, as to what makes ordinary individual a criminal, or anti-social. It should not have been considered a merely a law and order issue, but a psychological, or a social science issue. Only when such grass-root level understanding takes place in modern democratic system, that we could claim our governmental system as truly and genuinely 'democratic', or something under a peoples own government-model.

Friedrich Hayek describes what could be such freedom under peoples own government: ( The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Vol. 10: Socialism and War: Essays, Documents, Reviews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), Chapter 11: “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” [1949], pp. 221-237)" If the cause of liberty is to prevail once again, it is necessary for friends of freedom to not be afraid of being radical in their case for classical liberalism – even “Utopian” in a right meaning of the term.[27] To once more make it a shining and attractive ideal to imagine a world of free men who are no longer slaves to others, whether they be monarchs or majorities...

.. It would be a world of sovereign individuals who respect each other, who treat each other with dignity and who view each other as an end in himself, rather than one of those pawns to be moved and sacrificed on that chessboard of society to serve the ends of another who presumes to impose coercive control over his fellow human beings"

We have been into research and advocacy on the above theme for over 5 years, and have produced many papers dedicated to the cause of ‘reinventing modern democracy’.. We are glad to share few of them with you here, at links: http://direneedofreinventingdemocracy.blogspot.in/

He is a seeker&researcher in subjects like Mind, Reason, Polity, Metaphysics and Spirituality E-Mail: ajoseph1@rediffmail.comTwitter: Voice of philosophy@jopan1His profile/other blogs:https://www.blogger.com/profile/14249415589712707293

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About Me

He is an ardent seeker and researcher of truth about human-mind, faculty of Reason, social and political institutions,spirituality, and metaphysical dimensions of life..
He was awarded a residential Fellowship by Indian Council of Philosophical Research during 1990. His books:1) 'Is reason a sense organ? A super-mind above the known mind' 2) Is democracy a fake-coin? 3) Funniest joke about modern-world; It is FREE&OPEN !4) Many doors of new knowledge that mankind yet to knock-at, all self-published at Amazon.com
His research paper on DEMOCRATIC CULTURE was accepted for presentation at International Society for Universal Dialogue, Athens, Greece during 2012.
He is West Asia coordinator for 'World Philosophy Forum;See link:http://www.wpf-unesco.org/eng/acthk.htm
His research paper on 'police and human rights' was chosen for presentation in 2013 by Kalyani University, West Bengal.
A similar paper on 'Indian Heritage' was chosen by M.S.University, Baroda (Gujarat, India) in January, 2014, for presentation during the 'National Education Summit' at Gandhinagar.